The charity’s national secretary, Jan Cosgrove, said he had not been asked by the Home Office to produce the report, but had decided to do so because he was dissatisfied with the current vetting and barring system.

"We believe this report is an important contribution to the reshaping of the barring system," he said.

He said the charity had launched an online consultation about the report’s proposals, and officials at the Department for Education had agreed to consider the responses to it.

The Home Office announced in June that the vetting and barring scheme set up by the previous government would be halted and remodelled. The scheme proposed that applicants to work or volunteer with children and vulnerable adults should register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority and have their details placed on a central database.

It has not yet announced any further details about the scheme.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The government has made clear its intention to bring the criminal records and vetting and barring regimes back to common sense levels.

"The terms of reference for the remodelling of the scheme and of the criminal records regime are currently being considered and a further announcement will be made in due course. As part of this process we will be taking the views of a number of organisations and interested parties into account."

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